Requiretags

Requiretags is a policy mechanism used in tagging systems to enforce the presence of a defined set of tags on resources before they can be created, updated, or published. It is a pattern rather than a standalone standard, implemented in various domains such as content management, data catalogs, software repositories, and continuous integration workflows.

Function and scope: The core idea is to improve metadata quality, governance, and discoverability by guaranteeing that critical categorization information is present. A configuration or ruleset specifies the required tag keys and, optionally, value constraints or allowed patterns.

Operation: When a resource is created or modified, the system validates its tags against the requiretags rules. If any required tag is missing, the request is rejected or deferred until tags are added; in some deployments, missing tags may trigger automated prompts or suggestions.

Configuration and examples: Rules can be expressed as a list of keys, with optional value constraints. Example: requiretags: [environment, project, data-classification]; in a data catalog, a dataset might be required to have environment, owner, and retention tags.

Relation and alternatives: Requiretags complements other metadata governance approaches and can work with policy-as-code frameworks. It may be implemented as part of tagging services, validators, or workflow engines. See also: tagging, metadata governance, policy as code.